St Vincent de Paul Parish
I Samuel 3:3-10,19, John 1:35-42
17/01/2021
We are a people who are disturbed by persistent seeking. Samuel and the two disciples represent our experience. They are portrayed as seekers. In today’s Gospel, the question of Jesus that stands out; What do you want? or what do you seek? is a simple but profound question. It helps us to focus on what we give our lives to, for it is what we seek that drives our daily lives. It is a question that our conscience may hear repeatedly, and one which we are to answer many times.
From the readings of today, we can highlight two aspects: the importance of being seekers, and the importance of relationships with others in our search.
It is important that our conscience is awakened to seek. For God speaks to us through what we desire and seek. As we start the Week of Christian Unity, we remember that many are deeply seeking for that Unity. Being Peace Sunday in England and Wales, we are reminded that there are many people whose conscience is disturbed by the devastations of oppression and wars, and who consequently seek peace. We remember as well that in the context of COVID-19, as we seek for physical remedies, many people have been awakened to seek for spiritual understanding of their lives in the world. There are many other things that we desire and seek, and through which we can hear God’s voice. It matters less whether we are young like Samuel or adults like the two disciples, God speaks to us all.
We depend on a web of relationships to find what we seek. In the first reading, Samuel whose sleep is repeatedly disturbed by an unknown voice that calls him, learns through Eli, that it is the voice of God. The two disciples come to know Jesus as the Lamb of God through John the Baptist who said, “Look, there is the Lamb of God”. Simon comes to know and to follow Jesus as the Messiah through Andrew’s declaration; “We have found the Messiah”. This could bring to our memories many people who have been helpful to us in our various searches. Memories of the many people to whom we feel indebted when we think of our faith, our health, our families, our education, our careers, or our very life itself.
Like Samuel, and for the two disciples, we as Christians primarily seek to know, love, and serve God. This can be emphasized when we reflect imaginatively on the answer of Jesus “Come and See” to the question of the disciples where do you live? What was Jesus inviting them to see? He had no house of his own, no wife or children, farm, or business. We know that during his time of public ministry he had no fixed abode. He travelled to many places proclaiming the reign of God in word and in deed. In as much as he cared deeply for the world, he lived like a pilgrim, and with a deep knowledge of God whom he loved and served. The scripture says of the two disciples, “they went and saw where he lived and stayed with him the rest of that day”. One of them became a follower of Jesus. He must have been seeking to know, to love and to serve God, and we can presume that this is what he saw in Jesus and consequently became a disciple. This had its challenges for him as it has for us, but we are assured that one who seeks, finds.
